1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an electronic image recording and reproducing system, and more particularly to an electronic image recording and reproducing system including an electronic camera and an image reproducing apparatus such as an image monitor and a printer, in which image recording is performed with a dynamic range that is wider than that being required at reproducing (e.g., displaying or printing) of the image data, and exposure can be changed at the reproducing.
2. Description of Related Art
Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 7-288738 discloses an automatic exposure apparatus of an electronic camera that changes latitudes according to scenes at imaging. The automatic exposure apparatus performs knee control that prevents saturation at high-luminance parts in order to address a problem that the high-luminance parts are saturated since a luminance range is wide when a main subject is exposed at a normal exposure value with back light or too much front light.
The automatic exposure apparatus in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 7-288738, however, can not perfectly match the exposure to any scenes since the automatic exposure apparatus only changes the luminance range by a knee processing. Saturation at highlight parts is prevented by the knee processing, but the highlight parts lose definition and the image lacks in contrast. Also, over-exposure of a main subject can not be corrected at printing.
Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 11-69179 discloses an image reproducing method in which image data of a range wider than the dynamic range of the image reproducing apparatus is obtained; a density range appropriate for a reproduced image is found as setup information; and when an image file stored in an image information recording medium with the image data is displayed, the user checks the displayed image according to the setup information with a special software and chooses one piece of the setup information to display the image.
According to the image reproducing method in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 11-69179, an image capturing operation is inconveniently complicated, since it is required to predetermine the density range to be actually reproduced in the printing within the captured image information and to store the predetermined density range into the image file as a density range option. Moreover, the printing cannot always be performed with the optimum density, since the density information should be chosen in the reproducing from only the predetermined density range.